Wowsers.. I just finished editing and posting all of the pictures that Ray and I took over the weekend on our weekend Walking Dead tour. To say we had a great time, doesn't fully communicate the real fun that we had venturing into downtown Atlanta on the first day and then out to the southern boonies the second day on our own.
We packed up our kids and sent them off to our dear friends Maggie and Paul and ventured out for our first time together alone in months. Ray was unaware that I had been scheming and planning for a little over a week, with much anticipation I broke the news to him on Friday night at dinner prior to going to see the new World War Z movie. - I'm going to interject HERE-
Regarding WWZ - running zombies, make NO sense to me. If you're technically dead and the only thing keeping you moving is your brain then it would only make sense that one would slump about. It's just not RIGHT, zombies should NOT have the capability to run at the amount of speed that they do in WWZ. - That will be all I need to say about that!
Saturday began with a planned tour with Atlanta Movie Tours. We were so excited to find out that our tour guides were actual extras who played zombies in a number of scenes during the series. Chaz was our main tour guide and Michael helped our driver get around downtown Atlanta. We were able to hear a lot of stories and Chaz and Michae's experiences as zombies. It was all very entertaing. We visited many places:
The building where Merle gets handcuffed
The bridge that Rick crosses into town on horseback
The Mall - Where the group is trapped and Andrea gets her sister a mermaid necklace
The hospital - Where Rick emerges after being asleep
The Meeting Place - Where a confrontation occurs with a group of Latinos
The Parking Lot - Where Glenn steals the car
The Loading deck - Where the group escapes the mall
The Alley Way - Where Glenn is trapped
The CDC
The Street with the city line - Where the opening credits show ATL
Unfortunately, we were unable to see the Quarry as the city has closed it off and there is no access. This was a HUGE disappointment as we were hoping to see it.
Atlanta Movie Tours did a fantastic job and I considered ourselves extremely lucky to have Chaz and Michael as our guides. I would recommend the tour to anyone who is a die hard fan of the tour! Prepeare youreself to be fully caught up on the series however, there are spoilers.
Ray and I ended up staying downtown on Saturday night at the Ellis hotel. The room was small but nice, the construction due to the trolley installation on Peachtree was a bit of a pain but our stay was nice and I got the room at a great deal. Most of the nice hotels downtown are pricey around $150 +, so I was happy with what we paid for the room.
Being that I'm not in my early 20's anymore I scrambled about trying to find something entertaining for Ray and I to do on Saturday night that wouldn't include a $15 door charge at some club somewhere where drinks would be $12 a shot. Luckily upon my search of Google - I LOVE Google! I was able to book us some tickets to the Laughing Skull Lounge to see Justin William. I have to say that I never thought that the host of Cupcake Wars would be so funny but he was. He did a great job of mixing magic with comedy and was very entertaining. I'm glad that we were able to go.
Saturday morning we ventured out into the southern boonies of Georgia on our own guided tour. I had taken notes and had spent hours of research on the internet trying to find the most remote places where the show had been filmed. I have to say that my favorite part of our southern tour took place in Senoia (Woodbury) and at the waterfall.
The town of Senoia is a quaint little town roughly 50 min south of Atlanta. I have to tell you, that when the town was selected to become the town of Woodbury on the show, the producers couldn't have picked a more perfect place. Senoia is as charming and peaceful as we first find Woodbury to be in our initial introduction to the town. Beautiful flowers are displayed throughout varies places including alley ways in the town. The buildings reflect rustic southern charm and make the perfect backdrop. Our visit was on a Sunday, so things were quiet but several of the shops were open for business.
Even though the town is small, the residents have gladly embraced Walking Dead fans. We stopped into a couple of shops where I was pleasantly surprised to hear the shop oweners boasting about all the interactions they've had with the crew and actors of the show. You can sense the excitement and it was nice to see that no one appears to begrudge the producers for shutting down their little town or making their customers detour around the backs of buildings to shop.
I would recommend that if you're in Senoia that you visit The Georgia Mercantile Company. We spent about 20 minutes speaking with the owner Julie Brown who was so nice and sweet in helping us locate various areas in and around town. We were able to purchase a map from her store with various locations marked on the map which was very helpful. Julie also has the most inventory of Walking Dead memorabilia in town. She has a large inventory of comic books which I enjoyed flipping through. She is also very knowledgeable of behind the scenes facts regarding the town. I loved meeting her and hope that we'll be able to visit with her again someday.
We also stopped in at Chloe's where we were also able to meet with a very nice lady who also gave us many facts pertaining to the town. The shop was very cute, full of boutique items and lots of cute pieces of jewelry.
We stopped into eat at Katie Lous Cafe, the food was delicious and again the people were so very nice! After our walk through the town and all the cute little alley ways, I've convinced myself that I could see Ray and I retiring in Senoia. I can't express enough how warm and welcoming everyone in the town was.
Our day was already looking pretty productive, however we still had a lot of sites to visit.
We visited:
The church where the group goes to look for Sophia
The roadsides: Where Rick & Shane have a conversation, where the Governor looses it and kills his crew
The bridge where Darrel and Merle save the Latino family
The waterfall campsite where the group camps on the last episode of season 2
The roadside yard where the Governor ambushes the National Guard for more supplies
The entrance to The Prison - It's actually a studio space and no admittance was allowed
The Place where Glenn and Maggie get taken by Merle
The place where Merle has his last drink
Morgan's Town: The town of Grantville
Sadly the road to Hershell's Farm is closed and we couldn't even find it. However we were told by the mayor of Grantville that the elderly home owners had requested that he tell all his visitors that they don't care to give tours and only want to live in peace as they had to live in the second story of their home the entire time that the crew was filming on their property. We hope that they'll change their minds at some point but we couldn't blame them for wanting their privacy back.
One of the coolest places we visited was the site where Rick and the Governor meet to talk which is also the site of where Merle dies and where Michonne gets medication for Andrea. The site is located at the ESCO Feed Mill. We took a private tour with Jamie Thompson who runs tours at the Mill every Saturday and Sunday, weather permitted. She took us inside the barn where Rick and the Governor met and also took us inside the building where Merle shot out the window at the Governor's men and where he was killed by the governor.
Jaime was very nice, just like the people from Senoia. We were very sad to hear however, that many Walking Dead fans are not respectful of the grounds. The Mill had no choice but to begin to give tours because they were experiencing an overflow of intruders breaking into the buildings trying to get into the premises just to say that they had seen where the series had been filmed. In the time that we were on the premises we witnessed two groups completely ignore the signs displayed on the outside of buildings informing that the premises were private property and that they needed to call to enlist in the tour. I found myself becoming even more frustrated when the groups completely ignored Jaime and continued to tour the premises without her permission.
The ESCO Feed Mill is private property. If you plan to visit this location please contact Jaime for the tour, please respect the premises as we would hate for the owner to have no choice but to lock us all out! The Mill is open on Saturday and Sunday only you can call: 678-633-9486 for tour information.
Our Sunday tour ended with a personal tour around Morgan's Town from the Mayor of Grantville. Before Walking Dead filmed, the town was a ghost town. All the buildings are falling apart and the Mayor is working very hard to restore the town and increase the business. The tour is free to promote and encourage more fans to visit Grantville. The tour includes a walk through Morgan's apartment as well as the dumping ground of the zombies and the restaurant where Carl goes to get the photo of his family. The mayor is a hoot and is very proud of his town and all the future plans that they have that will bring more business to the town by way of Walking Dead fans. It's definitely worth the hour and half! To check out more about the tour click HERE.
Our Sunday tour ended with nachos and wings at Station 22 Grill. The food was really good and is pretty much the only place of business that is currently open in the town.
Well, I know this was a long post but I was hoping to reach other Walking Dead Fans that are interested in touring the GA sites. I hope it's encouraged some of you fans to get out for the weekend with a loved one and venture out to meet new people. I found it very interesting that we continued to bump into a lot of the same people throughout the weekend. Most visitors who take the Saturday guided tour usually book the Sunday tour with Atlanta Movie Tours which is easy to do however for added information and a personal touch you should speak to the store keepers and definitely take the tour at ESCO Mill with Jaime, those were added bonuses that we got that we would haven't done with the guided tour. Furthermore, you can check out more locations that AMT wouldn't guide you to, even though Atlanta Movie Tours does have direct access to the waterfall campsite (something to think about).
I have posted an entire gamut of pictures up on my personal Facebook page if you wish to see the images from our ventures. I simply don't have the time to post them to the blog. I've made the images public to everyone, so you don't have to be my friend to view them! Click HERE.
Ray and I had a fantastic time as we got to spend a lot of QUALITY time together and it's an adventure that I'll never forget. It only reminded me that I love that Ray and I don't have to have fancy dinners or buy each other expensive gifts because the funnest times we have together are when we're just able to be casual and go with the flow. This has become one of my favorite times that we've share together and I'm happy to have shared the details with all of you!
To 10 more years together!
We packed up our kids and sent them off to our dear friends Maggie and Paul and ventured out for our first time together alone in months. Ray was unaware that I had been scheming and planning for a little over a week, with much anticipation I broke the news to him on Friday night at dinner prior to going to see the new World War Z movie. - I'm going to interject HERE-
Regarding WWZ - running zombies, make NO sense to me. If you're technically dead and the only thing keeping you moving is your brain then it would only make sense that one would slump about. It's just not RIGHT, zombies should NOT have the capability to run at the amount of speed that they do in WWZ. - That will be all I need to say about that!
Saturday began with a planned tour with Atlanta Movie Tours. We were so excited to find out that our tour guides were actual extras who played zombies in a number of scenes during the series. Chaz was our main tour guide and Michael helped our driver get around downtown Atlanta. We were able to hear a lot of stories and Chaz and Michae's experiences as zombies. It was all very entertaing. We visited many places:
The building where Merle gets handcuffed
The bridge that Rick crosses into town on horseback
The Mall - Where the group is trapped and Andrea gets her sister a mermaid necklace
The hospital - Where Rick emerges after being asleep
The Meeting Place - Where a confrontation occurs with a group of Latinos
The Parking Lot - Where Glenn steals the car
The Loading deck - Where the group escapes the mall
The Alley Way - Where Glenn is trapped
The CDC
The Street with the city line - Where the opening credits show ATL
Unfortunately, we were unable to see the Quarry as the city has closed it off and there is no access. This was a HUGE disappointment as we were hoping to see it.
Atlanta Movie Tours did a fantastic job and I considered ourselves extremely lucky to have Chaz and Michael as our guides. I would recommend the tour to anyone who is a die hard fan of the tour! Prepeare youreself to be fully caught up on the series however, there are spoilers.
Ray and I ended up staying downtown on Saturday night at the Ellis hotel. The room was small but nice, the construction due to the trolley installation on Peachtree was a bit of a pain but our stay was nice and I got the room at a great deal. Most of the nice hotels downtown are pricey around $150 +, so I was happy with what we paid for the room.
Being that I'm not in my early 20's anymore I scrambled about trying to find something entertaining for Ray and I to do on Saturday night that wouldn't include a $15 door charge at some club somewhere where drinks would be $12 a shot. Luckily upon my search of Google - I LOVE Google! I was able to book us some tickets to the Laughing Skull Lounge to see Justin William. I have to say that I never thought that the host of Cupcake Wars would be so funny but he was. He did a great job of mixing magic with comedy and was very entertaining. I'm glad that we were able to go.
Saturday morning we ventured out into the southern boonies of Georgia on our own guided tour. I had taken notes and had spent hours of research on the internet trying to find the most remote places where the show had been filmed. I have to say that my favorite part of our southern tour took place in Senoia (Woodbury) and at the waterfall.
The town of Senoia is a quaint little town roughly 50 min south of Atlanta. I have to tell you, that when the town was selected to become the town of Woodbury on the show, the producers couldn't have picked a more perfect place. Senoia is as charming and peaceful as we first find Woodbury to be in our initial introduction to the town. Beautiful flowers are displayed throughout varies places including alley ways in the town. The buildings reflect rustic southern charm and make the perfect backdrop. Our visit was on a Sunday, so things were quiet but several of the shops were open for business.
Even though the town is small, the residents have gladly embraced Walking Dead fans. We stopped into a couple of shops where I was pleasantly surprised to hear the shop oweners boasting about all the interactions they've had with the crew and actors of the show. You can sense the excitement and it was nice to see that no one appears to begrudge the producers for shutting down their little town or making their customers detour around the backs of buildings to shop.
I would recommend that if you're in Senoia that you visit The Georgia Mercantile Company. We spent about 20 minutes speaking with the owner Julie Brown who was so nice and sweet in helping us locate various areas in and around town. We were able to purchase a map from her store with various locations marked on the map which was very helpful. Julie also has the most inventory of Walking Dead memorabilia in town. She has a large inventory of comic books which I enjoyed flipping through. She is also very knowledgeable of behind the scenes facts regarding the town. I loved meeting her and hope that we'll be able to visit with her again someday.
We also stopped in at Chloe's where we were also able to meet with a very nice lady who also gave us many facts pertaining to the town. The shop was very cute, full of boutique items and lots of cute pieces of jewelry.
We stopped into eat at Katie Lous Cafe, the food was delicious and again the people were so very nice! After our walk through the town and all the cute little alley ways, I've convinced myself that I could see Ray and I retiring in Senoia. I can't express enough how warm and welcoming everyone in the town was.
Our day was already looking pretty productive, however we still had a lot of sites to visit.
We visited:
The church where the group goes to look for Sophia
The roadsides: Where Rick & Shane have a conversation, where the Governor looses it and kills his crew
The bridge where Darrel and Merle save the Latino family
The waterfall campsite where the group camps on the last episode of season 2
The roadside yard where the Governor ambushes the National Guard for more supplies
The entrance to The Prison - It's actually a studio space and no admittance was allowed
The Place where Glenn and Maggie get taken by Merle
The place where Merle has his last drink
Morgan's Town: The town of Grantville
Sadly the road to Hershell's Farm is closed and we couldn't even find it. However we were told by the mayor of Grantville that the elderly home owners had requested that he tell all his visitors that they don't care to give tours and only want to live in peace as they had to live in the second story of their home the entire time that the crew was filming on their property. We hope that they'll change their minds at some point but we couldn't blame them for wanting their privacy back.
One of the coolest places we visited was the site where Rick and the Governor meet to talk which is also the site of where Merle dies and where Michonne gets medication for Andrea. The site is located at the ESCO Feed Mill. We took a private tour with Jamie Thompson who runs tours at the Mill every Saturday and Sunday, weather permitted. She took us inside the barn where Rick and the Governor met and also took us inside the building where Merle shot out the window at the Governor's men and where he was killed by the governor.
Jaime was very nice, just like the people from Senoia. We were very sad to hear however, that many Walking Dead fans are not respectful of the grounds. The Mill had no choice but to begin to give tours because they were experiencing an overflow of intruders breaking into the buildings trying to get into the premises just to say that they had seen where the series had been filmed. In the time that we were on the premises we witnessed two groups completely ignore the signs displayed on the outside of buildings informing that the premises were private property and that they needed to call to enlist in the tour. I found myself becoming even more frustrated when the groups completely ignored Jaime and continued to tour the premises without her permission.
The ESCO Feed Mill is private property. If you plan to visit this location please contact Jaime for the tour, please respect the premises as we would hate for the owner to have no choice but to lock us all out! The Mill is open on Saturday and Sunday only you can call: 678-633-9486 for tour information.
Our Sunday tour ended with a personal tour around Morgan's Town from the Mayor of Grantville. Before Walking Dead filmed, the town was a ghost town. All the buildings are falling apart and the Mayor is working very hard to restore the town and increase the business. The tour is free to promote and encourage more fans to visit Grantville. The tour includes a walk through Morgan's apartment as well as the dumping ground of the zombies and the restaurant where Carl goes to get the photo of his family. The mayor is a hoot and is very proud of his town and all the future plans that they have that will bring more business to the town by way of Walking Dead fans. It's definitely worth the hour and half! To check out more about the tour click HERE.
Our Sunday tour ended with nachos and wings at Station 22 Grill. The food was really good and is pretty much the only place of business that is currently open in the town.
Well, I know this was a long post but I was hoping to reach other Walking Dead Fans that are interested in touring the GA sites. I hope it's encouraged some of you fans to get out for the weekend with a loved one and venture out to meet new people. I found it very interesting that we continued to bump into a lot of the same people throughout the weekend. Most visitors who take the Saturday guided tour usually book the Sunday tour with Atlanta Movie Tours which is easy to do however for added information and a personal touch you should speak to the store keepers and definitely take the tour at ESCO Mill with Jaime, those were added bonuses that we got that we would haven't done with the guided tour. Furthermore, you can check out more locations that AMT wouldn't guide you to, even though Atlanta Movie Tours does have direct access to the waterfall campsite (something to think about).
I have posted an entire gamut of pictures up on my personal Facebook page if you wish to see the images from our ventures. I simply don't have the time to post them to the blog. I've made the images public to everyone, so you don't have to be my friend to view them! Click HERE.
Ray and I had a fantastic time as we got to spend a lot of QUALITY time together and it's an adventure that I'll never forget. It only reminded me that I love that Ray and I don't have to have fancy dinners or buy each other expensive gifts because the funnest times we have together are when we're just able to be casual and go with the flow. This has become one of my favorite times that we've share together and I'm happy to have shared the details with all of you!
To 10 more years together!
No comments:
Post a Comment